Multiple-voltage controller.



No. 662,375. Patented Nov. 20,1900. G. S. DUNN.

MULTIPLE VOLTAGE CONTROLLER.

Application filed Max: 21. 1900.) (No Model.)

2 Sheeis-Sheet l.

19 Witnesses: Inventor W 6 %w% Gano S. Dunn, mamza 33 m 4,

THE NORRIS PEYERS cu, PNOWLLITHO. WASHINGTON, D 3v No. 662,375. Patented Nov. 20, I900.

G. S. DUNN.

MULTIPLE VOLTAGE CONTROLLER.

Apvlication filed Mar. 21, 1900.)

2 Sheets-Sheet 2 (No Model.)

Witnesses; Inventor,

Wk flaf Gfano 5 Dunn,

/ wd/10% g M Aflorne UNITED STATES PATENT OFFICE.

GANO S. DUNN, OF EAST ORANGE, NEW JERSEY, ASSIGNOR TO THE CROOKER-WHEELER COMPANY, OF NEW JERSEY.

MULTIPLE-VOLTAGE CONTROLLER;

SPECIFICATION forming part of Letters Patent N 0. 662,37 5, dated November 20, 1900.

A li ti fl d March 21, 1900. Serial No. 9,586. (No model.)

To all whom it may concern:

Be it known thatI, GANO S. DUNN, acitizen of the United States of America,and a resident of East Orange, in the county of Essex and State of New Jersey, have invented certain new and useful Improvements in Multiple- Voltage Controllers, of which the following is a specification.

This invention provides means by which a working motor may be connected to either of several conductors, which are maintained at different voltages and regulated when so connected. The purpose is to enable the motor to be run efficiently at either of several speeds.

This means consists in a controller by which the motor is started and a multiple-voltage switch by which the motor-armature is connected to conductors of the voltage requisite for the desired speed. Between the controller and the multiple-voltage switch are interlocking devices by which the operation of the m ultiple-voltage switch is prevented except when the controller is in the open or oif position, and the movement of the controller from the open position is prevented when the multiplevoltage switch is intermediate between any of the points at which it eifccts connections.

In the accompanying two sheets of drawings, which form a part of this specification, Figure 1 is a diagrammatic representation of the system, including the controller and multiple-voltage switch. Fig. 2 is a top view of the controller and multiple-voltage switch. Fig. 3 is a vertical cross-section on the line 50 m of Fig. 2. Fig. 4 is a vertical cross-section on the line 00 x of Fig. 3.

As shown in Fig. 1, the controller and multiple-voltage switch receive current from five conductors, which are maintained at different voltages. Thus, for example, if conductor 1 be taken as the positive main then with respect to this conductor conductor 2 will be maintained at one hundred and fifty two volts, conductor 3 at one hundred and eighty- SlX volts, conductor at at two hundred and twenty volts, and conductor 5 at two hundred and fifty-four volts. These conductors are maintained at these voltages by a dynamoelectric machine or generator 6, which is driven by any suitable source of power, and a four-armature dynamotor. The dynamo has a compound field and is connected to the conductors 1 and 4 through a circuit-opening switch 7. It maintains the conductors between which it is connected at a difference of potential of two hundred and twenty volts. The fields S of all the dynamotorarmatures are supplied from the conductors l and 4, and the driving dynamotor-armature 9 is also supplied from these conductors. The second dynamotor-armatu re 10 is connected between the conductors 2 and 3, the third armature 11 is connected between the conductors 3 and 4:, and the fourth armature 12 is connected between the conductors 4 and 5. Each of these armatures maintains the pair of conductors between which it is connected at a difference of potential of thirty-four volts. The differences in potential with respect to lead 1 are, in consequence, as above stated. It is not, however, essential to my combined multiple-voltage switch and controller that the differences in potential should be as above indicated or that they shoud be maintained upon the conductors by any particular combination of dynamos and dynamotors, and the in vention is equally applicable in a system in which either a greater or a fewer number of different voltages are employed; but as the invention depends on the employment of a plurality of voltages it is essential that there should be at least three conductors and that suitably-driven armatures or other suitable sources of electrical energy should be so connected between the conductors that all will be interconnected, and it a motor be connected between any two conductors a current will flow through the motor from one conductor to the other and the circuit will be completed through one or more of the interconnecting armatures. These armatu res may be grouped between the conductors in a variety of ways, and the arrangement may or may not be such that the potential on some conductors will result from a reduction of the potential by means of motors from other conductors on which a higher potential is maintained. Thus, for example, the current on conductor2 is maintained at one hundred and fifty-two volts with respect to conductor 1; but it is derived from conductor 4:, which is maintained at two hundred and twenty volts with respect to conductor 1. The reduction is effected by means of the armatures 10 and 11, which act as motors to reduce the potential.

In the form illustrated wires from the conductors 2, 3, 4:, and 5 are led to four contactplates 13 of the multiple-voltage switch. The switch-lever 14: of this switch according to its position connects one or the other of these contacts with a plate 15. From this plate a wire leads to one of the blades 16, and from conductor 1 a wire leads to one of the blades 17 of a three-blade main switch, by which the connections are made between the conductors and the multiple-voltage switch on the one hand and the working motor and the controllers on the other hand. The middle blade 18 connects the sh unt-field of the work-' ing motor with one of the main conductors t.

The three blades of this switch are insulated from each other, but are mechanically connected, and are opened and closed bya single handle.

The controller is a cylinder with several groups of raised contact-plates, the plates of each group being in electrical connection, but insulated from the plates of other groups on the same side. For convenience of diagrammatic representation the controller is shown in Fig. i as a flat sheet of insulating material, with contact-plates supported thereon. The sheet is moved transversely either to the right or to the left from the open or off position in which it is shown to bring the contact-plates under the contact-fingers and effect the electrical connections. When this is done, the main circuits are from the conductor 1 through the blade 17 to a contactfinger 19, through the left or right group of plates 20, accordingly as the controller is moved to the right or to the left, through all of the resistance 2l,if contact is made with the contact-finger 22, or more'or less of the resistance, if contact is made with either of the contact-fingers 28, 24-, 25, or 26, or around all of the resistance, if contact is made with contactfinger 27. From the resistance or around the resistance, if the controller is moved to the left, the circuit is through the contact-finger 28, plates 29, contact-finger 30, through the armature 31 of the working motor, contact-finger 32, and plates to the contact-finger 34:. If the controller is moved to the right, the circuit from the contactfinger 28 is through the plates 35, contact-finger 32, through the armature in the opposite direction to contact-finger 30, and contact-plates 36 to contact-finger From contact-finger 34- the circuit is through the series field 37 of the working motor and thence through the blade 16 to the plate 15, through the contacts carried by the multiplevoltage switch-lever to one or the other of the contacts 13, according to the position of this lever, to one or the other of the conductors 2, 3, 4, or 5, thereby completing the circuit through the armatures of the dynamotor and the dynamo back to conductor 1. It will be seen, therefore, that the controller in addition to being an ordinary rheostat for varying the resistance in circuit with the motor is also a reversing-switch for reversing the direction of the current through the armature of the working motor. It is not essential to this invention that the controller should have this latter feature. There is also a second circuit which is through the shunt-field 38 of the working motor. This is closed as the controller is moved in either direction from the off position. This circuit branches from the main circuit at the contact-finger 22 and leads through the shunt-field and blade 18 to one of the conductors 4. This circuit is independent of the position of the multiplevoltage switch and the amount of resistance cut out by the controller. It will thus be seen that the working motor has a compound field, one part being in series with the ar1nature and the other in shunt with the armature. The series-field coil can be connected through the multiple-voltage switch to conductors of different potential, and the shuntfield is connected always to the same conductors.

For the convenience of diagrammatic illustration the interlocking device between the multiple-voltage switch and the controller, as illustrated in Fig. 1', is somewhat different from the interlocking device which is actually employed, as shown in Figs. 2, 3, and at; but the mechanical result is the same and will be understood without further description from an explanation of the device as actually used.

The actual construction of the multiplevoltage controller is shown in Figs. 2, 3, and t. The casing for it is made in two com partments. The one at the leftin Fig. contains the m ultiple-voltage s\vitcl1,andtlie one at the right contains the controller. The controller is carried by a vertical shaft. Mechanically attached to this shaft, but insulated therefrom and from each other, are a series of metal sleeves with raised segments corresponding to the groups of contact-plates described in the discussion of the diagram and indicated in these figures by the same reference-numerals. A wooden block supports the contact-fingers. The controller is operated by the handle t0. Attached to the controller-shaft is a disk 4:1, with a notched periphery, which is engaged by a roller $2 on the end of a lever e3, which is pressed against the disk by the spring 4:4. The notches are so placed that they will come opposite the roller when the contact-plates are in positions to make good electrical contacts with the contact-fingers.

The multiple-voltage switch is pivoted to a plate 1-5, of insulating material, on which the contact-plates 13 and 15 are mounted. Fingers :6 and 47 are carried by the switch-lever and connect the contact-plates. The switchlever is a spring-blade which passes through a slot in the top of the casing. The blade lows: The controller-cylinder is brought to the open or off position by means of its handle. This brings the notch in the disk 51 opposite the latch 50, as shown in Fig. 2. The multiple-voltage switch can now be set for the desired voltage, depending on the required speed. It is first pulled out of the notch in the side of the slot at the top of the casing. This presses back the pivoted plate 49 and pushes the latch 50 into engagement with the notch in the disk 51 on the controller-shaft. The controller is thus locked against movement and remains so until the multiplevoltage switch-lever has been set for the desired voltage and has entered one of the notches in the side of the slot at the top of the casing. When it has entered one of the notches, the locking-plate follows and the spring pressed latch withdraws from the notch in the controller-disk, thereby releasing the controller. The controller can then be moved in either direction as desired; but when it is in any position except the open position the notch in the disk is not opposite the latch and the multiple-voltage lever is locked against movement by the controller. It will thus be seen that the multiple-voltage switch is locked against movement away from the voltage connection to which it may be connected whenever the controller is turned from the open position, and the controller is locked against movement from the open position while the in ultiple-voltage switch is being shifted from one voltage connection to the other. In other Words, the multiple-voltage switch and the controller are interlocked by suitable mechanism.

What I claim as new, and desire to secure by Letters Patent of the United States, is

1. The combination with three or more conductors having interconnecting means for maintaining them at different voltages, of a motor, a multiple-voltage switch and a controller between the motor and the conductors, and locking mechanism for the multiplevoltage switch which is operated by the con troller and is released only when the controller is in open position, substantially as described.

2. The combination with three or more con ductors having interconnecting means for maintaining them at different voltages, of a motor, a multiple-voltage switch and a controller between the motor and the conductors, and interlocking mechanism between the multiple-voltage switch and the controller, substantially as described.

3. The combination of a multiple-voltage switch and a controller, a notched guide-slot for the multiple-voltage switch-lever, a movable plate on the opposite side of the switchlever from the notches in the guide-slot, a spring-pressed latch connected with the plate, and a notched disk carried by the controller, by which the multiple-voltage switch is locked by the controller, substantially as described.

4. The combination with three or more conductors having interconnecting means for maintaining them at different voltages, of a motor with two field-coils, a switch for connecting one of the field-coils to two of the conductors, and a switch for shifting the connections of the other field-coil between the conductors, substantially as described.

5. The combination with three or more conductors having interconnecting means for maintaining them at different voltages, of a motor with series and shunt field-coils, a switch for connecting the shunt field-coil to two of the conductors, and a switch for shifting the connection of the series field-coil and armature between the conductors, substantially as described.

Signed by me in New York city, borough of Manhattan, State of New York, this 19th day of February, 1900.

GANO S. DUNN.

Witnesses:

THOMAS EW NG, J12, SAMUEL W. BALOH. 

